Adrian Collins's Blog, page 204

REVIEW: Devolution by Max Brooks

It sounds exciting right, living amongst the wilds of nature while being tethered to the city’s ease and convenience. You get the verdant beauty without all the needs of living in a forest. Who wouldn’t want that? But what if something huge happens and you are unprepared for it. You are a city person living amongst the beasts. What do you do, how do you survive?

This is what happened to Greenloop community on the skirts of Mt. Ranier when the Bigfoots came to hunt.

Let me start by saying that Devolution was the wrong book to read right now. Currently, I am neurotic and anxious, trapped in quarantine, much like the rest of the world. Trees surround my home. I can see Mt. Ranier on a clear day from my front yard. It is either the worst or the best time to pick up a book like Devolution; either way, it was effective at scaring the bejeezus out of me. This story is something. Written in what I am sure is to become the “Max Brooks style” of storytelling. It is told through letters and first-person interviews. Instead of linear storytelling Brooks creates the world of the story brick by brick until you are surrounded by his world and can’t get out.

“Many people are horrified when they hear that a chimpanze might eat a human baby, but after all, so far as the chimpanzee is concerned, men are only another kind of primate…”

A group of rich yuppies from the city comes to a premade rural/city community named Greenloop. The food and necessities are shipped in via drone, the homes are smart and powered by solar, people telecommute for work, and every need has been thought of by the architect. Then with a boom and shaking, the sky fills with ash, and Greenloop is cut off from all human contact. This, on the surface, is bad enough. You take characters that do not have a strong bone in their bodies and throw them into a life and death situation and see what happens. Now add in a mysteriously large footprint. Animal bones are surrounding the complex that has been chewed on and licked clean. A strong smell of gamey rot that permeates the air, and instead of just survival, you have so much more to worry about. In the vein of classic fear of invisible monsters, these people are stalked and toyed with.

The lead character is a neurotic woman named Kate. I dislike Kate. I think everyone who reads this book will hate Kate at first. She is an insufferable know-it-all that would be the first to complain to a manager if her chardonnay was the wrong temperature. But when everything goes pear-shaped, Kate changes. This is the best part of the book. Kates’s character progression is beautiful and believable. She is so much more under the surface; all she needed was flesh-eating primates to bring it out. You will love her, you will cheer her, and you will want her to win.

The one complaint I have about the story is that it is a slow burn. SLLLOOOOOWWW. I was waiting for something to happen in the first 60 % of the story, and nothing did. It wasn’t enjoyable until you see why Brooks wrote it that way in the last 40% of the story. It all comes together. Every little bit of info or aside he shoved into the beginning was the building blocks for the last gory and exciting forty percent of the novel. Then all you have is an appreciation for Brooks’s storytelling abilities. Because man, there is craziness, explosions, fights, terror, excitement… so much.

Devolution isn’t World War Z; it is an entirely new thing. The scale is smaller, but the action and characterizations aren’t. It is a big story told on the microscale of a small community. It was so much fun, and you should read it.

Buy Devolution by Max Brooks

The post REVIEW: Devolution by Max Brooks appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

REVIEW: Vampyr

Vampyr is a game by Dontnod Entertainment, creator of the popular Life is Strange episodic adventure. A Gothic Horror action-adventure game is about as far from that story as possible, so I was intrigued as well as wary when the game first came out in June 2018. While I ultimately enjoyed the game, it is the update of the game and my thoughts on replaying it in 2020 that inclined me to write this review. A game about politics, disease, poverty, mass uprisings, and the undead walking the line between them reads a bit differently in light of recent events.

The premise of the game is that it is 1918 during the Spanish Flu. Doctor Jonathan Reid is an upper class Englishman and veteran of World War One that has returned to his city during its worst years with the possible exception of the Black Death, Great London Fire, and the upcoming Second World War. Bodies are piling up in the streets and being carried off to mass graves. The city is torn between classicism, social unrest, and the slow death of the British Empire. What could possibly make this situation worse? Why vampires of course.

As bad as the Spanish Flu is, something unnatural has begun spreading vampirism among the city’s residents. These creatures are not the suave and debonair creatures of myth but mostly a bunch of hungry, feral, and hideous creatures that are only unnoticed due to the sheer amount of death that is already occurring due to the influenza outbreak. Combating these creatures are roving bands of vampire hunting vigilantes called the Priwen Guard.

Doctor Reid runs afoul of the guard and these feral vampires when he awakens on top of a mass grave as one of the few still-intelligent members of his race. He, unfortunately, kills an innocent woman within minutes of awakening and she turns out to be someone very important to him. This also puts him in the sights of the Priwen Guard. In the end, only a chance encounter with an occultist running a free hospital allows him to survive his second night of vampirism. Can Doctor Reid help bring an end to this disaster and does he really want to?

The atmosphere of the game is tremendous with the dark and crumbling London feeling like something out of Interview with a Vampire. I don’t think it’s particularly historical but the feel of it nicely updates Dracula to the early 20th century. It also remembers that the British Empire extended to all corners of the globe so not everyone is lily white agnostics. We get reminders of the racism, sexism, homophobia, political extremism, and PTSD that was rampant during this set point in time without it ever feeling like the game is trying to make a point. Just presenting it is enough to get the game’s message.

While Doctor Reid has a Dark Souls-lite series of adventures where he must fight vampire hunters and monsters in the street in order to get to the various social hubs, the most innovative mechanic of the game is best described as, “Who do I murder?” There’s sixty-four or so NPCs scattered throughout the game that can be interacted. All of them have backstories, personalities, and subplots related to each other. Some of them are innocents and others are complete assholes. In order to increase his strength, Doctor Reid can choose to kill some of these mortals. Normally, this will traumatize and weaken districts but that’s easily fixed by attending to the survivors. A few of them are people who make the lives of their neighbors worse too.

Doctor Reid is, unfortunately, the weakest link of an otherwise solid story. He’s a somewhat snooty upper-crust healer who seems devoid of traits that another man of his background would have during the time period. Progressives certainly existed in 1918 but they forgot to give him any flaws to balance out his better qualities. Giving him a few weaknesses like overwhelming arrogance, addiction, bloodthirst (of a less literal kind), regular lust, or other vices might have made him more engaging. As such, he’s a saintly human who becomes a saintly vampire.

Vampyr has recently been updated with a story mode that allows players to avoid some of the sometimes punishingly-difficult combat of the game. It has also been provided with a much harder difficulty for those who enjoy a challenge. Personally, I think Vampyr is worth picking up and full of excellent writing as well as characters. Its main character could have been better done but I don’t hate him either. He’s just a bit too much of a proper gentleman in a setting that cries out for a ruthless antihero.

Buy Vampyr from Dotnod Entertainment

The post REVIEW: Vampyr appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

An Interview with Rob J. Hayes

Hey demented ones! This issue I come to you from the Dripping Bucket. It’s dark, the tables smell and the ale is horrible—but I am here with the Hat himself: Rob J. Hayes!

If you don’t know Rob’s work, he just finished his The War Eternal trilogy which is GDAF and is a past winner of Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) and almost made it twice this last year with his ode to old Asian martial arts movies—Never Die.

Now, I know many of you are thinking right now, “finally! We’ll get to the bottom of this cabal thing!”

Sorry, but we won’t be exploring wild rumors like a secret cadre of authors running the grimdark world behind the scenes. That would be outlandish, and uh, fantastic. #NoCabal

I’ve cyber-known Rob for a few years and enjoyed his work, but never interviewed him. Before now that is…

[TS] Rob, thanks for taking the time for a chin wag.

[RH] No worries at all, thank you for inviting me over. Is it over? On? I’m never sure which phrase to use for virtual chatting.

[TS] I’m going to start this off a bit differently. One of the things that we have talked about several times online is our mutual love for whiskey. What got you started with whiskey and which one are you really enjoying lately?

[RH] I do love a good whiskey. Or a good rum to be honest. I like to have a variety in the house so I have a choice when it comes to tipple time. Weirdly it’s just been of a progression for me from spirit to spirit. Used to be a vodka drinker, then switched to rum and drank them with mixers. Then I started sipping rum neat just because I really enjoyed the flavour. A mate of mine was big into his bourbons so I gave a few a try and converted happily. Then last year I started getting into the Irish whiskeys. At some point, I reckon I’ll head on over to Scotch, but I’m not quite there yet.

As for favourites at the moment. Woodford Reserve is always a big favourite of mine, and I love getting a bottle in, though it never lasts as long as it should. Other than that, I recently got myself a bottle of Writers Tears Double Oak and I’m loving the taste of it.

[TS] Rob, you have built a pretty successful library of work and a loyal following and have stayed indie. Can you tell us what your thought process was for staying indie when you could switch to traditional? What are the pros and cons in your opinion?

[RH] I could switch to trad? On a serious note, I am hoping to have a series published traditionally, but I will not be making a full switch. I like the hybrid approach so that’s my goal, a nice mix of trad and indie. As to the pros and cons to either, I believe they are many and varied. For myself, I like the freedom to explore that being indie gives. Traditional publishing, by its very existence is a place of gatekeeping. For a book to be picked up and published, an editor has to fall in love with it. And just because an editor doesn’t fall in love, doesn’t make it a bad book, it might just mean it’s not for them, or not for another editor as well. It might not be for any of the editors, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad book or that it will not have an audience.

So I guess what I’m saying is I’m an author who likes to write what I want to write. What I feel strongly about and what is galloping through my brain like wild bison stampeding a young lion. Another way of putting it is that I’m a mess who doesn’t know how to write to the market.

From a business standpoint, the two sides of publishing look like entirely different beasts. Sure, you have to start with both by writing a book, but after that they divulge in every aspect. As an indie, the risk is entirely on you as the author. You pay for the cover, the editing, the marketing. In a very real way, whether it succeeds or fails is down to you. You also tend to get a larger slice of the pie. I do like having large slices of pie, but I would also like to have certain aspects taken out of my hands. I’ll refer back to me being a mess at this point.

[TS] I don’t think anyone would argue that most of your books aren’t firmly in the grimdark camp. Yet, you are the nicest, most laid-back guy. Where do you draw your dark side from? Is it Korra the beagle of death?

[RH] I would argue my books aren’t in the grimdark camp. Maybe my debut trilogy (The Ties that Bind) is, but most of what I write? Never Die certainly isn’t, at its core it’s a book about heroes having another shot at redemption. It’s a bit bloody in places, but the characters aren’t morally grey, and they actively pursue heroic goals. With my latest trilogy (The War Eternal), you could argue that book 1 is grimdark, but when you set a book in a brutal underground prison, it’s a little hard not to be. I’d argue books 2 and 3 are more epic fantasy.

But that’s not what you asked. The beagle of doom certainly helps. She has a big purple towel and when you wrap her up in it so it looks like a hood, she looked like a Sith lord. We call her Darth Doggyous.

I don’t think I really have a dark side any more than most people do. Any grimdarkiness in my books comes mostly from looking at the world around us, what’s been and what’s happening right now. There’s plenty of darkness to draw upon right there. As for the morally grey aspect of characters, I just try to make my characters feel as real as possible and a morally grey aspect feels natural. Everybody has dark thoughts from time to time, skeletons in closets, a whole gamut of emotions from the happy, sparkly to the brooding, anger.

So I guess I draw my dark side from the dark side of humanity. It’s like an anti-spirit bomb.

People of earth, lend me your dark energy!

Too much. TOO MUCH! Take some of that shit back.

[TS] In book 1 of your War Eternal series, we meet Eska, a young mage who skipped her childhood in service of her government. While dealing with other more pressing issues in her immediate environment, we also realize that as badass as she is, she is still so young and clueless in some ways as far as interpersonal relationships.

She learns some hard lessons.

What was your inspiration for her and what were the challenges for you writing a complex female character as a male author?

[RH] Oh she certainly learns some hard lessons. I sometimes think I should have tortured Eska a little less in those books. She gets put through the wringer.

A lot of the inspiration for Eska really comes from a place of anxiety and depression. I hope it’s clear to most who read it that she suffers from some fairly heavy mental illness issues. Eska is a character who second guesses herself, who looks back on her decisions and calls herself an idiot for making them, who dredges up the stupid mistakes she has made and doesn’t sugar coat them but instead shines a damning light upon them. At the same times, she is a character who does not apologise for who she is, nor what she has done, but owns up to everything. I wanted to give my readers a character they could follow through her journey and see all the good and ill, the mistakes and triumphs, and really see how each makes her grow as a person from a callous foolish youth into the woman known as the Corpse Queen (that’s not a spoiler, she tells you that’s who she is in chapter 1).

As for specific challenges for writing a complex female character, I can’t really name any. Eska really just flew onto the page for me. That being said, it’s worth pointing out that 3 of my 4 alpha readers are women, so if I get anything wrong in an unrelenting male fashion, I get called out on it.

[TS] I have to digress for a minute and say that ONE of my favorite things you write isn’t even a book, but your monthly facebook preview of next month’s indie author new releases. I have taken my TBR to ridiculous heights because of that list. What got you started with that?

[RH] So about 18 months ago I realised I kept seeing lists of books coming out next month. The lists were always on blogs like Tor or B&N, you know small fries compared to myself. And I’d always click to see what was coming and whenever I was releasing a book, some small foolish part of me would be like Wouldn’t it be cool if your book was on there? Of course, it never was. Those lists were for trad books. So it dawned on me that indie authors didn’t really seem to have an equivalent. A list of upcoming books that was all indie. I figured I could piss and moan about it, keep dreaming that I’d one day see my book on a list with all the big hitters. Or I could create my own list of upcoming books each month and use what platform I do have to help shine a light on the little guys like myself.

It’s not quite the same, I don’t have some special way of finding the upcoming releases. I’m mostly reliant on people telling me that they’re releasing a book, but it seems to be working. Plenty of people have come back to me and said that I’ve helped them find new books to read and new authors to follow. And now, if anyone else like me was clicking on those links and hoping in foolish vain to see their books up there, well now they can.

[TS] What is the best book you have read recently, and what was so good about it?

[RH] So many! I’ve been reading a lot the past couple of years thanks to audiobooks, and I’ve found some real crackers. I’ll start by hitting up a fellow indie by saying Paternus by Dyrk Ashton knocked my socks off. I read it last year and was blown away by the way he breaks the rules and makes it work. No idea how he does it, but he has head hopping, exposition, foreign language. You name a rule, and Dyrk has probably broken it, but the books are still amazing.

I also have to mention The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding, a book that doesn’t get anywhere near enough attention. I was in a bad spot a while back, struggling to find my interest in fantasy books… which is especially hard when it’s your primary interest. And The Ember Blade really ripped me out of that slump. It’s such a perfect mixture of old school adventure like you seen in LotR along with the more modern style like you’d find in Abercrombie or Lawrence.

Can I pick a third? I’m gonna pick a third. I recently listened to The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin and loved it. Much like with Paternus, I loved the way the book broke the rules. It had a second person perspective which was weird as all hells and such a powerful delivery. It was structured really oddly, and spent long periods of time not going anywhere, and yet I was riveted. Absolutely loved it. And the second and third books kept breaking rules too!

[TS] Who are some up and coming writers and / or books that you think we should be watching out for?

[RH] M.L. Wang of current SPFBO fame, the katana-wielding author of Sword of Kaigen. So I know this isn’t her first rodeo and she’s written previous books (SoK is not her debut), but by her own admission her other books are more YA focused. SoK is her first foray into more general adult fantasy and she nailed it so hard. If she can continue to bring the same level of emotional impact and brilliantly constructed prose that she did with SoK, I think she’s gonna be picking up awards all over the place. She’s also a really lovely person and hilarious to boot.

Who else? So many again. Evan Winter. Have you read Rage of Dragons? That book is intense! Blistering action, on point commentary, an expansive world, and characters that are so damned believable and broken. Book 2 is coming out soon, I think, and I cannot wait to listen to it. He’s another who’s going to be picking up awards.

One more, I’m working in threes today. Gareth Hanrahan, the author of Gutter Prayer and Shadow Saint. His imagination is leagues ahead of the competition. The bestiary of creatures, monsters, and gods in his series is mind blowing. I love it. I can’t wait to see what’s coming next from him. And hey, his books break a few rules too.

[TS] What is your favorite book that you’ve read in recent years that you would recommend to others?

[RH] Stop asking me to name single favourite books. I can’t do it. Skullsworn by Brian Staveley left a big impact on me. I don’t hesitate to say that Eska and her The War Eternal trilogy wouldn’t exist without Skullsworn to inspire me.

Continuing to roll on the threes. Age of Assassins by R J Barker I happily recommend far and wide. That book and the trilogy just work so damned well as murder mysteries without a murder from the point of view of the murderer. And R J breaks rules in the weirdest of ways with things like formatting and shifting tenses. Truly inspiring.

Last one, I’ll go with Robin Hobb’s latest trilogy starting with Fool’s Assassin. Hobb probably needs no introduction, but to anyone who hasn’t read her books, get on it. No one delivers emotion and devastating character arcs quite like her. It’s a series that will stay with me for life and you all need to feel the same pain I do.

[TS] I have to ask you as a brit, what is it about the old country that enables you guys to crank out so many heavy hitters in the grimdark community? Abercrombie, Lawrence, Smith-Spark, Stephens, Barker, McLean, yourself, just to name a few (and apologies for the ones I left off). Is life really that dark across the pond?

[RH] It really is. We wake up at 5am the previous morning and we’re down in the Pit (capital P) before 4am. A 64 hour work day and all we get to eat is rich tea biscuits coated in marmite.

I don’t know what it is really. British mentality maybe? We’re not told to look on the bright side of life. We always support the underdogs, until they’re not underdogs anymore, then screw them for getting uppity and growing above their station. We don’t complain, until we do and then we complain like there’s no tomorrow.

Yeah, I got no idea. We live on an island with pleasant temperatures, where the most dangerous animal is the wasp, you can get from one end to the other in a hop, skip, and a jump, and there’s a pub every two feet.

[TS] With the insane year we’ve all been having, how has it affected your writing? How about just your life in general?

[RH] It hasn’t affected me in the slightest. I’m certainly not currently writing a new book set in a world where humanity has been all but wiped out and is hanging on by a thread, with a creeping enemy known only as the Doom sweeping across the planet. Nope… no effect at all.

My life really hasn’t changed that much. I was already a hermit who worked from home. The biggest change is not being able to see friends and family, and that’s been a big blow to the mental stability. Depression is ever a thing I fight against and it’s been rearing its head pretty regularly. It’s been tough to cope with, but with the support of a brilliant wife-not-wife and a naughty little beagle-face, I’m getting through it.

[TS] Ok Rob, we’ve reached that point of the interview where you sell us on your new stuff. What is up and coming in the world of Rob Hayes?

[RH] Well, I don’t know if you know this, but I have just recently finished publishing The War Eternal trilogy which kicks off with Along the Razor’s Edge. That’s been a pretty big deal for me. Book 1 has only been out for about 3 months and book 3 less than a month. So there’s that. For those who don’t know, it’s a story about a young woman, a Sorcerer, who is on the losing side of the great war. She has her powers stripped from her and is thrown into the Pit, a prison sunk deep into the earth. But she refuses to give up and refuses to break and refuses to let go of her dreams of vengeance.

And I should probably mention I’ve just signed the audio rights to The War Eternal over to Podium, so the audiobooks will be coming soon!

I’m releasing a sequel (that is not a sequel) to Never Die in January 2021. It’s called Never Die Another Day With A Vengeance. Not really. It’s called Pawn’s Gambit.

I’m writing this new military flintlock fantasy set in the world with humanity on the edge. And I have about 6 other things in the pipeline. Life keeps me busy.

[TS] And the sound of heads breaking tables in the back of the tavern means we’re out of time. Rob, thanks so much for taking the time to talk.

[RH] Always happy to talk books and ramble on for hours. Thanks for having me.

This interview was originally published in Grimdark Magazine #23

The post An Interview with Rob J. Hayes appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

An interview with Rob J. Hayes

Hey demented ones! This issue I come to you from the Dripping Bucket. It’s dark, the tables smell and the ale is horrible—but I am here with the Hat himself: Rob J. Hayes!

If you don’t know Rob’s work, he just finished his The War Eternal trilogy which is GDAF and is a past winner of Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) and almost made it twice this last year with his ode to old Asian martial arts movies—Never Die.

Now, I know many of you are thinking right now, “finally! We’ll get to the bottom of this cabal thing!”

Sorry, but we won’t be exploring wild rumors like a secret cadre of authors running the grimdark world behind the scenes. That would be outlandish, and uh, fantastic. #NoCabal

I’ve cyber-known Rob for a few years and enjoyed his work, but never interviewed him. Before now that is…

[TS] Rob, thanks for taking the time for a chin wag.

[RH] No worries at all, thank you for inviting me over. Is it over? On? I’m never sure which phrase to use for virtual chatting.

[TS] I’m going to start this off a bit differently. One of the things that we have talked about several times online is our mutual love for whiskey. What got you started with whiskey and which one are you really enjoying lately?

[RH] I do love a good whiskey. Or a good rum to be honest. I like to have a variety in the house so I have a choice when it comes to tipple time. Weirdly it’s just been of a progression for me from spirit to spirit. Used to be a vodka drinker, then switched to rum and drank them with mixers. Then I started sipping rum neat just because I really enjoyed the flavour. A mate of mine was big into his bourbons so I gave a few a try and converted happily. Then last year I started getting into the Irish whiskeys. At some point, I reckon I’ll head on over to Scotch, but I’m not quite there yet.

As for favourites at the moment. Woodford Reserve is always a big favourite of mine, and I love getting a bottle in, though it never lasts as long as it should. Other than that, I recently got myself a bottle of Writers Tears Double Oak and I’m loving the taste of it.

[TS] Rob, you have built a pretty successful library of work and a loyal following and have stayed indie. Can you tell us what your thought process was for staying indie when you could switch to traditional? What are the pros and cons in your opinion?

[RH] I could switch to trad? On a serious note, I am hoping to have a series published traditionally, but I will not be making a full switch. I like the hybrid approach so that’s my goal, a nice mix of trad and indie. As to the pros and cons to either, I believe they are many and varied. For myself, I like the freedom to explore that being indie gives. Traditional publishing, by its very existence is a place of gatekeeping. For a book to be picked up and published, an editor has to fall in love with it. And just because an editor doesn’t fall in love, doesn’t make it a bad book, it might just mean it’s not for them, or not for another editor as well. It might not be for any of the editors, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad book or that it will not have an audience.

So I guess what I’m saying is I’m an author who likes to write what I want to write. What I feel strongly about and what is galloping through my brain like wild bison stampeding a young lion. Another way of putting it is that I’m a mess who doesn’t know how to write to the market.

From a business standpoint, the two sides of publishing look like entirely different beasts. Sure, you have to start with both by writing a book, but after that they divulge in every aspect. As an indie, the risk is entirely on you as the author. You pay for the cover, the editing, the marketing. In a very real way, whether it succeeds or fails is down to you. You also tend to get a larger slice of the pie. I do like having large slices of pie, but I would also like to have certain aspects taken out of my hands. I’ll refer back to me being a mess at this point.

[TS] I don’t think anyone would argue that most of your books aren’t firmly in the grimdark camp. Yet, you are the nicest, most laid-back guy. Where do you draw your dark side from? Is it Korra the beagle of death?

[RH] I would argue my books aren’t in the grimdark camp. Maybe my debut trilogy (The Ties that Bind) is, but most of what I write? Never Die certainly isn’t, at its core it’s a book about heroes having another shot at redemption. It’s a bit bloody in places, but the characters aren’t morally grey, and they actively pursue heroic goals. With my latest trilogy (The War Eternal), you could argue that book 1 is grimdark, but when you set a book in a brutal underground prison, it’s a little hard not to be. I’d argue books 2 and 3 are more epic fantasy.

But that’s not what you asked. The beagle of doom certainly helps. She has a big purple towel and when you wrap her up in it so it looks like a hood, she looked like a Sith lord. We call her Darth Doggyous.

I don’t think I really have a dark side any more than most people do. Any grimdarkiness in my books comes mostly from looking at the world around us, what’s been and what’s happening right now. There’s plenty of darkness to draw upon right there. As for the morally grey aspect of characters, I just try to make my characters feel as real as possible and a morally grey aspect feels natural. Everybody has dark thoughts from time to time, skeletons in closets, a whole gamut of emotions from the happy, sparkly to the brooding, anger.

So I guess I draw my dark side from the dark side of humanity. It’s like an anti-spirit bomb.

People of earth, lend me your dark energy!

Too much. TOO MUCH! Take some of that shit back.

[TS] In book 1 of your War Eternal series, we meet Eska, a young mage who skipped her childhood in service of her government. While dealing with other more pressing issues in her immediate environment, we also realize that as badass as she is, she is still so young and clueless in some ways as far as interpersonal relationships.

She learns some hard lessons.

What was your inspiration for her and what were the challenges for you writing a complex female character as a male author?

[RH] Oh she certainly learns some hard lessons. I sometimes think I should have tortured Eska a little less in those books. She gets put through the wringer.

A lot of the inspiration for Eska really comes from a place of anxiety and depression. I hope it’s clear to most who read it that she suffers from some fairly heavy mental illness issues. Eska is a character who second guesses herself, who looks back on her decisions and calls herself an idiot for making them, who dredges up the stupid mistakes she has made and doesn’t sugar coat them but instead shines a damning light upon them. At the same times, she is a character who does not apologise for who she is, nor what she has done, but owns up to everything. I wanted to give my readers a character they could follow through her journey and see all the good and ill, the mistakes and triumphs, and really see how each makes her grow as a person from a callous foolish youth into the woman known as the Corpse Queen (that’s not a spoiler, she tells you that’s who she is in chapter 1).

As for specific challenges for writing a complex female character, I can’t really name any. Eska really just flew onto the page for me. That being said, it’s worth pointing out that 3 of my 4 alpha readers are women, so if I get anything wrong in an unrelenting male fashion, I get called out on it.

[TS] I have to digress for a minute and say that ONE of my favorite things you write isn’t even a book, but your monthly facebook preview of next month’s indie author new releases. I have taken my TBR to ridiculous heights because of that list. What got you started with that?

[RH] So about 18 months ago I realised I kept seeing lists of books coming out next month. The lists were always on blogs like Tor or B&N, you know small fries compared to myself. And I’d always click to see what was coming and whenever I was releasing a book, some small foolish part of me would be like Wouldn’t it be cool if your book was on there? Of course, it never was. Those lists were for trad books. So it dawned on me that indie authors didn’t really seem to have an equivalent. A list of upcoming books that was all indie. I figured I could piss and moan about it, keep dreaming that I’d one day see my book on a list with all the big hitters. Or I could create my own list of upcoming books each month and use what platform I do have to help shine a light on the little guys like myself.

It’s not quite the same, I don’t have some special way of finding the upcoming releases. I’m mostly reliant on people telling me that they’re releasing a book, but it seems to be working. Plenty of people have come back to me and said that I’ve helped them find new books to read and new authors to follow. And now, if anyone else like me was clicking on those links and hoping in foolish vain to see their books up there, well now they can.

[TS] What is the best book you have read recently, and what was so good about it?

[RH] So many! I’ve been reading a lot the past couple of years thanks to audiobooks, and I’ve found some real crackers. I’ll start by hitting up a fellow indie by saying Paternus by Dyrk Ashton knocked my socks off. I read it last year and was blown away by the way he breaks the rules and makes it work. No idea how he does it, but he has head hopping, exposition, foreign language. You name a rule, and Dyrk has probably broken it, but the books are still amazing.

I also have to mention The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding, a book that doesn’t get anywhere near enough attention. I was in a bad spot a while back, struggling to find my interest in fantasy books… which is especially hard when it’s your primary interest. And The Ember Blade really ripped me out of that slump. It’s such a perfect mixture of old school adventure like you seen in LotR along with the more modern style like you’d find in Abercrombie or Lawrence.

Can I pick a third? I’m gonna pick a third. I recently listened to The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin and loved it. Much like with Paternus, I loved the way the book broke the rules. It had a second person perspective which was weird as all hells and such a powerful delivery. It was structured really oddly, and spent long periods of time not going anywhere, and yet I was riveted. Absolutely loved it. And the second and third books kept breaking rules too!

[TS] Who are some up and coming writers and / or books that you think we should be watching out for?

[RH] M.L. Wang of current SPFBO fame, the katana-wielding author of Sword of Kaigen. So I know this isn’t her first rodeo and she’s written previous books (SoK is not her debut), but by her own admission her other books are more YA focused. SoK is her first foray into more general adult fantasy and she nailed it so hard. If she can continue to bring the same level of emotional impact and brilliantly constructed prose that she did with SoK, I think she’s gonna be picking up awards all over the place. She’s also a really lovely person and hilarious to boot.

Who else? So many again. Evan Winter. Have you read Rage of Dragons? That book is intense! Blistering action, on point commentary, an expansive world, and characters that are so damned believable and broken. Book 2 is coming out soon, I think, and I cannot wait to listen to it. He’s another who’s going to be picking up awards.

One more, I’m working in threes today. Gareth Hanrahan, the author of Gutter Prayer and Shadow Saint. His imagination is leagues ahead of the competition. The bestiary of creatures, monsters, and gods in his series is mind blowing. I love it. I can’t wait to see what’s coming next from him. And hey, his books break a few rules too.

[TS] What is your favorite book that you’ve read in recent years that you would recommend to others?

[RH] Stop asking me to name single favourite books. I can’t do it. Skullsworn by Brian Staveley left a big impact on me. I don’t hesitate to say that Eska and her The War Eternal trilogy wouldn’t exist without Skullsworn to inspire me.

Continuing to roll on the threes. Age of Assassins by R J Barker I happily recommend far and wide. That book and the trilogy just work so damned well as murder mysteries without a murder from the point of view of the murderer. And R J breaks rules in the weirdest of ways with things like formatting and shifting tenses. Truly inspiring.

Last one, I’ll go with Robin Hobb’s latest trilogy starting with Fool’s Assassin. Hobb probably needs no introduction, but to anyone who hasn’t read her books, get on it. No one delivers emotion and devastating character arcs quite like her. It’s a series that will stay with me for life and you all need to feel the same pain I do.

[TS] I have to ask you as a brit, what is it about the old country that enables you guys to crank out so many heavy hitters in the grimdark community? Abercrombie, Lawrence, Smith-Spark, Stephens, Barker, McLean, yourself, just to name a few (and apologies for the ones I left off). Is life really that dark across the pond?

[RH] It really is. We wake up at 5am the previous morning and we’re down in the Pit (capital P) before 4am. A 64 hour work day and all we get to eat is rich tea biscuits coated in marmite.

I don’t know what it is really. British mentality maybe? We’re not told to look on the bright side of life. We always support the underdogs, until they’re not underdogs anymore, then screw them for getting uppity and growing above their station. We don’t complain, until we do and then we complain like there’s no tomorrow.

Yeah, I got no idea. We live on an island with pleasant temperatures, where the most dangerous animal is the wasp, you can get from one end to the other in a hop, skip, and a jump, and there’s a pub every two feet.

[TS] With the insane year we’ve all been having, how has it affected your writing? How about just your life in general?

[RH] It hasn’t affected me in the slightest. I’m certainly not currently writing a new book set in a world where humanity has been all but wiped out and is hanging on by a thread, with a creeping enemy known only as the Doom sweeping across the planet. Nope… no effect at all.

My life really hasn’t changed that much. I was already a hermit who worked from home. The biggest change is not being able to see friends and family, and that’s been a big blow to the mental stability. Depression is ever a thing I fight against and it’s been rearing its head pretty regularly. It’s been tough to cope with, but with the support of a brilliant wife-not-wife and a naughty little beagle-face, I’m getting through it.

[TS] Ok Rob, we’ve reached that point of the interview where you sell us on your new stuff. What is up and coming in the world of Rob Hayes?

[RH] Well, I don’t know if you know this, but I have just recently finished publishing The War Eternal trilogy which kicks off with Along the Razor’s Edge. That’s been a pretty big deal for me. Book 1 has only been out for about 3 months and book 3 less than a month. So there’s that. For those who don’t know, it’s a story about a young woman, a Sorcerer, who is on the losing side of the great war. She has her powers stripped from her and is thrown into the Pit, a prison sunk deep into the earth. But she refuses to give up and refuses to break and refuses to let go of her dreams of vengeance.

And I should probably mention I’ve just signed the audio rights to The War Eternal over to Podium, so the audiobooks will be coming soon!

I’m releasing a sequel (that is not a sequel) to Never Die in January 2021. It’s called Never Die Another Day With A Vengeance. Not really. It’s called Pawn’s Gambit.

I’m writing this new military flintlock fantasy set in the world with humanity on the edge. And I have about 6 other things in the pipeline. Life keeps me busy.

[TS] And the sound of heads breaking tables in the back of the tavern means we’re out of time. Rob, thanks so much for taking the time to talk.

[RH] Always happy to talk books and ramble on for hours. Thanks for having me.

This interview was originally published in Grimdark Magazine #23

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REVIEW: The Book of Dragons ed. Jonathan Strahan

I came across The Book of Dragons anthology, edited by prolific, award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan, while I was looking for a good upcoming book to review. Of course, I always look for something grim and, well, dark because that is what I and our readers enjoy. I was wary, of course; I didn’t want to accidentally stumble into any high fantasy noblebright nonsense. (Kidding! Nothing wrong with that stuff, just not my cup of ale.) But I felt myself yearning nostalgically for a battle or two with a dragon. To be honest, I miss Wiglaf, and I wanted to see if I could find him here. I did not. However, I did find many extremely well-written, if somewhat unconventional, dragon stories and poems, and best of all, a new story by Grimdark Magazine favourite author (and extreme recluse these days) Scott Lynch, which is almost itself worth the cover price (of the Kindle version at least).

The Book of Dragons comprises 29 stories and poems that essentially take dragons out of their comfort caverns and place them into mostly modern settings. The list of authors is quite impressive. In addition to Lynch, The Book of Dragons contains stories or poems by Garth Nix, R.F. Kuang, Ann Leckie & Rachel Swirsky, Daniel Abraham, Peter S. Beagle, Beth Cato, C. S. E Cooney, Aliette de Bodard, Kate Elliott, Theodora Goss, Ellen Klages, Ken Liu, Patricia A McKillip, K. J. Parker, Kelly Robson, Michael Swanwick, Jo Walton, Elle Katharine White, Jane Yolen, Kelly Barnhill, Brooke Bolander, Sarah Gailey, and J. Y. Yang, and one of my new favourites, Zen Cho, whose new brilliant new novella, The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, I reviewed here last issue.

I never read reviews that just run down the plot blurbs of each story, so I won’t do that here. Nevertheless, in this diverse and extensive anthology you will find stories about a girl who sells her dragon for tuition money, dragon domestic squabbling, a society that uses dragon energy, a beautiful poem by everything-award-winner Jo Walton about the Norse dragon Nidhog, a dragon spirit summoned by a mobster, the son of a knight who captures a dragon for his father to battle, a girl who loves Le Guin’s Earthsea novels visits San Francisco’s Chinatown for the first time, a girl who sacrifices her younger sister to mollify dragons, an exile sentenced to prepare a new planet with a dragon, a guy who falls in love with a dragon at the University of California Berkeley, a school bus chased by a dragon, a society that sacrifices destitute widows to demon-eating dragons, a dragon procured for a puppet show, a dragon woman who hoards foster children, a girl and a demon boy who want to become dragons, a woman who gives up being a lawyer to live with dragons, and more and more. By now, you can tell that this is not an anthology of conventional dragon tales, which I found both good, since many, many clichés are avoided, and not-so-good, I was hoping for more real, old-school dragons.  There are, however, some very good and fairly grimdark stories here, which for me, made a well-written, surprising anthology all the better, so that’s what I’ll focus on.

One of my favourites stories in the anthology is “Where the River Turns to Concrete” by Brooke Bolander. It’s a contemporary tale about a river dragon summoned to work for a mobster. Aside from the violence and the grim urban setting, this one falls squarely into the grimdark realm thanks to the moral ambiguity of its main character, Joe. Joe is a hired goon for mobster Raymond Sturges’s gang. He’s not sure how he became a mob thug, but the pay is good, he can’t remember ever doing anything else, and he’s suited for role both physically—he’s huge—and psychologically (or perhaps spiritually)—he feels no compunction about hurting and killing people. He was found by Sturges huddled and completely naked in the corner of a parking garage. He is grateful Sturges gave him something to do to support himself. However, when a meets a young woman and her young son at the apartment complex where he stays, he finds himself feeling other human emotions that he doesn’t know what to do with. In the end, of course, his two natures must clash violently and terminally. “Where the River Turns to Concrete” is not only grimdark (IMHO), but it contains the emotional intensity of the best shorties. Yes, it has plenty of action, but the emotional engagement is what makes this story special. You’ll have to read it to find out where the dragon fits in.

Another emotionally compelling story, which is both grim and dark, is “The Long Walk” by prolific fantasy novelist Kate Elliot. In this beautifully told story, a new widow, Asvi, is spared her social duty of taking the long walk to sacrifice herself to demon-eating dragons because her deceased husband has left her enough to subsist on. Less-well-off women must walk to the mountains to sacrifice themselves to the dragons, not only so the dragons will keep the demons away but also to avoid becoming a burden on society. However, when her family moves her from the big upstairs bedroom with a distant view of the dragon mountains into a lower level room with a view of the garden wall, she begins to question how much she really wants to live in her new role. Aside from being a grim tale of aging and women’s role in society, this story gives a penetrating psychological insight into the roles of family members, their relationships, and also a look at class stratification in society. Even more compelling, perhaps, is that it is exquisitely and vividly told, tense with emotion, and full of surprises. It is probably my favourite of the many excellent stories in this anthology.

I would be remiss here, I think, if I did not discuss Scott Lynch’s excellent story, “Maybe Just Go Up There and Talk to It,” since he is a favourite of our staff and our readers. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil it. The story begins after the nuclear explosions of World War II. (Yes, it is way out of the Gentleman Bastard’s world.) Soon after the war, strange grey clouds appear all over the world, and people soon discover that the clouds are leaving dragons on earth wherever they appear. At first a few hunters arm themselves against the dragons—an elephant gun proves to be a powerful weapon against them—but even when they’ve killed a few dragons, many more take their place. A down-and-out American veteran of the Pacific War, Emery Blackburn, is given the job of rural deputy sheriff as the police try to bulk up, but as the years progress, society finds they cannot control the dragon invasion, and the government writes off rural communities, including Blackburn’s own, as lost,. “Maybe Just Go Up There and Talk to It” shows that Lynch’s writing is as dense, vivid, and beautiful as ever. The story is full of human compassion, which perhaps its most compelling draw, but Lynch’s writing brings his dragons to life as frightening, deadly beasts. The dragons in the story are the most vividly and beautifully detailed in the anthology, and at the same time are probably the most vicious.  For me, though, Lynch’s writing is the grabber. His prose is dense and fast-moving, animated and eloquent, and full of wry humour and surprises. Yes, it made me pine for another Gentleman Bastard book. Please, Scott, you can do it!

All the stories and poems in The Book of Dragons are high quality, well written, and engaging. Although I enjoyed some more than others, I think most readers who enjoy reading about dragons and who enjoy diverse contemporary fantasy short stories will want to add this to their collections. Yes, I would rather be reviewing the next Gentleman Bastard novel, and though The Book of Dragons might not be ideal for readers who strictly read grimdark, it should definitely satisfy general fantasy readers and should serve as an excellent model for good short-story writing.

It was not what I expected, not what I’d hoped for, and not at all bad. I pretty much gobbled it up like Smaug at a harvest festival.

Review originally published in Grimdark Magazine #23.

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REVIEW: The Seventh Perfection by Daniel Polansky

I love a carefully conceived, beautifully executed, challenging narrative, but if someone had told me that the new novella by Daniel Polansky (Low Town trilogy) was written in the second-person point of view, I might have passed on it, which would have been a HUGE mistake. The Seventh Perfection is a gripping, strange, and grim story that will satisfy multiple readings (which, unfortunately, I did not have time for before this review). It is extremely unconventional in its narrative execution, but the narrative is absolutely perfect for the story, and the story is absolutely perfect for the shorter format of Tor.com’s excellent novella series.

One thing I (usually) dislike about second-person narrative is its propensity to use the word you a lot. ‘You go up the stairs. You see….’ I just don’t buy it most of the time. I find it hard to suspend my disbelief, as Coleridge might say. The Seventh Perfection avoids that completely, and almost entirely flips the problem on its head. In The Seventh Perfection, you are Manet of the White Isles, an amanuensis of the God King Ba’l Melqart, who lives in the Spire in the middle of the city. Manet is one of the very few people who have completed the seven perfections, specialized trainings for servants of Ba’l Melqart, the seventh of these being the development of perfect memory. When Manet receives the gift of a locket with a faded portrait inside, she begins an investigation to find out who the woman in the portrait is, which brings her to various people around the city who might know. Each chapter of The Seventh Perfection comprises a character telling Manet what they know, or don’t know, about the locket. As such, each chapter is named for the character who tells, in first-person point of view, Manet what he or she knows about the locket; hence, the flipping of the second-person narrative on its head. And you, Manet, have to figure it all out. That alone would be a pretty compelling read; however, the locket leads to a story that the servants of Ba’l Melqart do not want known, and there’s the rub.

As she quests through the city, Manet talks to a variety of strange and stranger people, from a street hawker, to an antiques collector, to a witch with a rat, to an old friend, to the Patriarch of the city guards, to a ferryman, and more and more. Each character has a unique voice and a unique story to tell. Manet listens and records everything in her perfect memory. When she visits Nutesh, a renowned and somewhat bumbling and notorious antiques collector, early in the novella, the narrative voice of the collector immediately called to mind Robert Browning’s most famous poem “My Last Duchess,” in which the reader is addressed (presumably) by the Duke of Ferrara who explains what happened to his late duchess in the portrait he is showing off. The poem is widely recognized as a classic example of the dramatic monologue form (and you should read it if you haven’t already because it’s great).  And that’s what you’ll find in The Seventh Perfection, twenty-eight widely varied and variously hysterical, intimidating, conniving, helpful, deceitful, and confusing dramatic monologues (and one trialogue) told to you, the amanuensis. To make matters worse (which means, of course, to make them much better), rumours of your investigation are beginning to circulate around the city, and the guardians of the God King do not like it one bit.

Importantly, as it turns out, the monologues of the people Manet encounters ultimately unveil the history of the city itself, which has recently undergone a revolution of sorts by which, for better or worse, the God King replaced an equally feared and mysterious queen whom he renamed the Anathema when he deposed her. As often happens in political upheavals, most of the people, the subjects of these rulers, couldn’t care less who lives at the top of the Spire, so long as they don’t change anything very much. The people are just as willing to revere the God King as they were the Anathema, as long as they can still drink and whore and go about their business. This moral and political ambiguity reminds me a bit of the constant battle between the North and the Union in Ambercrombie’s First Law. Neither side is worth a shit, but the upheaval is constant.

Manet’s quest for information must ultimately lead to the Spire, of course, but is that a good thing or a bad? We don’t really know. Will she press the city into another seemingly purposeless violent upheaval? Maybe I’ll find a clue when I reread the book again starting tonight. But that’s one of the beauties of moral ambiguity and one of the reasons we love grimdark so much – we get to decide … or not decide.

So … getting down to the point: Polansky is a fucking genius. If you don’t already know that from reading the Low Town trilogy, you will realise it when you read The Seventh Perfection. He took an unconventional form, the novella, and practically reinvented storytelling for it. For example, (and don’t tell my editing clients this), the inciting incident in this story could be said to happen about ninety percent of the way through it. That’s very unconventional, but here, it’s just the way it happens, or at least how we find out about it. Similarly, the main character never says a word, and yet we learn her life story. There is no ‘narration,’ per se, but the reader is thrust through the city at a rapid pace in vivid detail. Though I’m sure the narration style has its roots somewhere, perhaps in Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, I’m willing to bet you’ll find The Seventh Perfection to be like no book you’ve read in recent memory.

And memory is what it’s all about, the main theme here—how do we form memories and can they be trusted? Are they really whole or just fragments we put together? The seventh perfection is memory, and those few people who achieve perfect memory, like Manet, become the memory of the realm. In her quest she explores the memories of twenty-plus people, looking for answers, trying to put pieces together. And the memories of the people she talks to, flawed or not, hold the unreliable memory of the realm and her life. But not only are their memories fallible and flawed, many of them have something to hide and others are intimidated by her position within the realm itself. For me, themes are secondary to compelling characters in tense emotional situations that result in riveting entertainment, but The Seventh Perfection seems to have it all—can’t-put-it-down reading with layers and layers of meaning.

The Seventh Perfection, as you might have guessed by now, is not necessarily an easy read. It will challenge your notion of storytelling and force you to put pieces together that otherwise might have been laid out in the usual expository passages, but this is really what makes it such an involving, enthralling read. There are no armies or staged battles here, but there is a shithole of a grim setting, some violence and the constant threat of more, and a moral vacuum that will force you to make up your own mind about who is good and who is bad or if such a thing even exists in this world. Overall, I found it to be totally fucking brilliant, but if you’re looking for the same old thing, you won’t find it here.

The Seventh Perfection by Daniel Polansky is scheduled for release on 22 September 2020 by Tor.com.

Originally published in Grimdark Magazine #23.

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REVIEW: Hack/Slash Omnibus Volume 1 by Tim Seeley

Hack/Slash by Tim Seeley is a homage to the slasher movies of the 80s, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Goth girls. If there was ever a comic book that was made for me personally then this is it. Grimdark fans should note that this is a hard-R comic book that deals with surprising issues of loss, violence, family, and trauma in addition to giving a spectacular collection of gory kills. As a fan of the slasher genre, it is also a work that adores its beautiful heroine in every panel as well, though I’m not a fan of the omnibus’ cover I will admit.

The premise is the world is infested by a race of revenant-like monsters called slashers. In life, they are a bunch of homicidal serial killers compelled to kill by their DNA but this is only the beginning of their evil. When a slasher is killed, they rise from the grave as a nearly unkillable zombie. It’s a delightful way to justify the seeming invincible status of such monsters as Leatherface, Michael Meyers, and Jason Voorhees. It also provides our protagonist with a seemingly endless supply of enemies to destroy.

The protagonist is Cassandra “Cassie” Hack, a young girl who had the misfortune of having a slasher as a mother. The Lunch Lady killed her schoolyard bullies and then, after dying, came back to her daughter. Cassie was forced to put her mother’s revenant down and thus dedicated herself to the destruction of slashers everywhere. Along the way she picked up a partner in Vlad, a deformed but good-hearted giant who bears a not-insignificant resemblance to the previously mentioned Jason (only he wears as a gas mask instead of a hockey mask).

The first omnibus has a collection of excellent Hack/Slash tales started with “Euthanized”, which is about as serious as the series tends to get. I also enjoyed “Good Girls Gone Dead” which is about a young fundamentalist using black magic to get revenge on a bunch of hapless Spring Breakers. There was also the entertaining “Slice Hard” that had Cassie have to choose between making a deal with scientists to help Vlad and avoiding the inevitable catastrophe that studying slashers is bound to create. We even have a crossover with Chucky and the short-lived Chaos Comics character Evil Ernie.

Cassie Hack is an immensely entertaining protagonist as she manages to evoke sympathy, desire, and support for her kickass ways. She’s a sarcastic and snarky heroin ala Buffy but lacks Ms. Summers’ support system. While Vlad is her best friend, she is almost suicidal in her desire to continue throwing herself into battle against slashers because she is utterly alienated from regular people. Even when they reach out and try to provide a support system, typically the people she’s rescued, they are people she avoids.

The art of the book is spectacular with vivid and beautiful depictions on every page. I particularly love Cassie Hack’s design and think of her as one of my all-time favorite art pieces. The designers are clearly aware of Cassie’s appeal to those who like alternative girls and we’ll even see her become a Suicide Girl later on in the series. The action is fluid and there’s a lot of humor in the background that works well.

In conclusion, if you’re a fan of 80s slashers with all their cheesecake and gore then you’ll love Hack/Slash. If you’re a fan of snarky Joss Whedon-esque horror comedy then you’ll enjoy Hack/Slash. If you’re a fan of surprisingly dark and deep storytelling about surviving trauma then you’ll like Hack/Slash. This is the perfect series for grimdark comic fans, IMHO.

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REVIEW: We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

I remember thrashing my head to metal when I was a teenager. I remember the moment when I let the music take me; I felt the guitar howl through my head and the drumbeat in my very bones. I am not sure I feel that much anymore. Maybe when I am alone in the car, I might crank Metallica or Tool. But it never entirely is the same as when you were 19, which is a tragedy.

Grady Hendrix’s book, We Sold Our Souls is about a lot of things: love for music, love for horror, or the state of mental and emotional health in the US. But what sang for me in this book is losing that connection to music, the kind you have when you are 19. Losing that emotional part of you that vibrates from the energy of the music is one of the saddest things, and it is a kind of horror in of itself. Wrap all of those ideas up, loss, the love of music, passion, and the plight of the middle class into a pulsing metal package, and you have We Sold Our Souls.

Right from the start, you do not have to love thrash metal to appreciate any of the ideas in this book. You could substitute Klezmer music in for metal, and it will ring true for some people. It is not so much what type of music you like, but being able to connect with the music itself. Even though Hendrix speaks at length about Metal music, you can substitute anything you are passionate about.

In this case, the story revolves around the members of Dürt Würk, a semi-famous metal band from the 1990s. Specifically the incredibly badass and beat-down Kris. Kris is to Dürt Würk as Slash is to Guns N’ Roses. She is the shredding lead guitarist that gets on stage and apologizes to no one. Kris is authentically herself, a metal-loving girl with bloody fingernails, sweat dripping down her face, and music that sings out from the dark parts of her. She is all that is metal.

“No one loves me! Boohoo! Guess what? We play fucking metal! I don’t want to sing about your sad feelings! I want dragons.”

– There are no butterflies inside her.

We Sold Our Souls starts with Kris early in life, as a teenager, confused, and all attitude. She wants to play the riff from Sabbath, and she bleeds herself through the first chords until it sounds right. And for one glorious shiny moment, Sabbath was in her basement. She is hooked. Next, we meet Kris at 47 years old. The end of a career, and her soul, living in her mother’s house working at a Best Western. The first scene of this is hilarious and sad. A naked man with a pillowcase over his head comes into her office and pisses all over her desk. He then farts and leaves. Her brother, who is a policeman’s first question is not “are you ok?” His first question was, “Jesus Kris, couldn’t you clean this up?” It is sad, and it shows how much she has fallen from her former life as a guitarist.

“it is possible to be crazy and paranoid and totally insane and still be right. Maybe the problem with everyone is that the world has become so insane they’re not out of their minds enough to comprehend it.”

You can tell that Kris’s life is shit, but she can still fight. “I can pick a fight in an empty fucking elevator. “No one left to fight.” Fuck you”

The brilliant thing about this story, and what sets it apart from other rock-themed stories, is that instead of the story being around a young idealistic Kris at the beginning of her career. It is about Kris at 47 and broken. It is a much more exciting story because Kris is much more complicated. The story progresses as Kris’s former bandmate, and ex-best friend Terry Hunt decided to headline a farewell tour for his band. The ex-best friend that betrayed her and the other Dürt Würk bandmates years ago. Kris decides that it is time to get the band back together. To say that she runs into resistance from all sides is putting it lightly. Her quest takes her on a reunion with the bandmates: guitarist Scottie Rocket, bassist Tuck, drummer Bill, and finally Terry. She is on a one-woman quest to figure out what the hell happened on the night it all fell apart with only her grit and ax of a guitar to help her. She battles egos, band managers, the supernatural, and crazed fans. It is an epic fight.

But this is marketed as a horror novel, you say? It is. We Sold Our Souls is a horror novel. Hendrix wrote one of the scariest chapters in a cave that I have ever read. I am claustrophobic, and I had to put the book down for a while before I had a panic attack. Kris deals with a lot of violence and gore. It is almost Viking death metal in its visuals. Also, much of the story has the subtext of the death of dreams. It is much scarier and more visceral than some creature or ghost yelling “BOO” at you. The loss of dreams is a hollowing out of oneself, and it is not something someone can easily come back from. People settle for recreations of things instead of working for the real deal. People even sell their souls for iPhones. It is sad, but the way Grady Hendrix writes it rings true.

“I can’t believe that after a lifetime of playing metal, it turns out the world is a shitty country song.”

We Sold Our Souls is a gritty and real story, highly entertaining, and it tapped into that part of me I thought I lost long ago. The part that vibrates and roars when I hear Sabbath or Metallica. It is there still, and I love that Hendrix shined a light on it. We Sold Our Souls is also a story about who we choose as our family and how they can hurt us or help us grow, and it is, above it all, about the transcendent power of music because music cures all.

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REVIEW: Paternus: War of Gods by Dyrk Ashton

I received an uncorrected proof copy of Paternus: War of Gods in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Dyrk Ashton.

Only a handful of days have passed since the hospital attack in Paternus: Rise of Gods but so much has changed for Fi and Zeke. These seemingly average teenagers have been whisked away from their normal lives to become key players in the looming war of ages. Alongside Peter (also known as Odin and the all-Father), the Prathamaja Nandana, Freyja, Kabir, Ganesh, and many more in an all-star Gods and heroes of mythology line-up, they are making the final arrangements before the epic confrontation with Khagan and Kleron’s Asura.

“The end of the Maha yuga is coming in only a few weeks, and with it, possibly the end of the world.”

We join the action as Zeke and Pratha are off to Africa in search of the Twins of legend and Peter asks Fi if she’d like to go visit Yggdrasil, The World Tree. The Asura are also preparing for the final showdown with Khagan having quite a few tricks and surprises hidden up his Firstborn sleeve.

Ashton’s Paternus trilogy is a masterclass of Urban Fantasy. The scale and scope of the whole Paternus endeavour is phenomenal and War of Gods takes what I thought I knew of epic fantasy and multiplies the stakes, the action, the drama, and emotional wallop by ten. There are almighty showdowns that have been millennia in the making, the all-star line-ups on the side of the Deva and the Asura includes characters that make the majority of superheroes look dang average, and there were scenes that were so emotionally impactful that this humble reviewer was crying his eyes out on a park bench this morning. The final showdown here rivals that of John Gwynne’s in A Time of Courage which was, until today, hands down the finest battle I’d ever read about in fantasy fiction.

War of Gods is still delivered in Ashton’s unique head-hopping third person present tense style, which took a while to get used to in the first book but now paints a crystal clear image of all that is going on in the heads of numerous characters on both sides of the war. Talking about characters, the dramatis personae is huge! The size of the ensemble at least doubles here. That is great though as some of the new additions and players who were minor characters previously have great standout moments and performances. (I want my own personal raven like Munin who can slip and has an adorable tiny sword!) Humour in fantasy is very hit and miss with me but Ashton injects it well when it is needed and it doesn’t come across forced or overpowering. The below quote is an example that I think works well at adding a smile and a bit of brightness to the impending doom the story brings.

“Fi delivers her own war cry, really just a loud yell, then grins. The theatrics are ridiculous, she knows, but it’s worth the looks on the faces of the soldiers. She knows exactly how they feel. It wasn’t long ago she reacted the same way. And they still haven’t met the ogres, Naga’s children, the habilis, or seen the big scary unicorns.”

The Paternus Trilogy is exceptional. Each entry gets stronger and as a collective, they have made my top-10 fantasy series of all-time list. The only self-published work that currently sits on that list. The only question is, what comes next for Ashton? How do you top such a phenomenal first trilogy? Like Khagan, I’m sure he’s got something up his sleeve.

Buy Paternus: War of Gods by Dyrk Ashton

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COVER REVEAL: Plight of Madness by Jesse Teller

First I’d like to thank Grimdark Magazine for hosting the Plight of Madness cover reveal. I’m excited to have such an important institution to the grimdark world so willing to showcase my work. 

Working with Jenny Zemanek at Seedlings Design is everything I ever hoped a cover design process would look like. She’s absolutely brilliant and so committed to producing a final product everyone is happy with. She worked very hard on Plight and all the covers in this series so far, which I hope you agree are well-thought out and well-executed. 

Here is the cover for the third book of The Madness Wars series, Plight of Madness. For those familiar with the series, you’ll see one figure you can recognize and two more you’ll have to read the book to find out about. 

So, I’ll get out of your way and let you look at the cover. 

Plight of Madness (The Madness Wars, Book 3)

by Jesse Teller

Cover Design: Jenny Zemanek, Seedlings Design
Editors: Tim Marquitz, Dale Triplett, and Rebekah Teller
Release Date: October 5th, 2020

The Drine legions achieve their greatest victory since launching the war, and Tienne seems out of heroes. Simon Bard has fled, the ancient Despelora is missing, and Peter Redfist’s men have scattered. Just when it looks like Rextur will win this war, rumor of an old legend surfaces. Tienne has protectors who should be long-dead. The Sons of Despelora have risen, and the Madness of Drine is not prepared. 

The concept behind the covers for the series is to create one complete interlocking panoramic. Here are three of the four covers presented together: 

Praise for The Madness Wars

“This grit and grime tale is riveting, something one cannot look away from, not that they would want to!” —Tome Tender Book Blog

“As the individual stories of these people play out in different parts of the nation of Tienne, the reader gets a real variance in perspective within the scope of this conflict.” —Grimdark Magazine (Review of Onslaught and Wrath) 

“There’s something that feels very authentic and immersive, as well as both complex and simple at the same time.” —Forever Lost in Literature

Plight of Madness is the third book in a quartet. The fourth and final book of the series, Fate of Madness, is set to release April 15th, 2021.

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